COUNTY SEEKING NEW REVIEW FIRM THAT REMOVES BODIES UNDER SCRUTINY

Broward County commissioners are criticizing the county medical examiner's office for downplaying problems plaguing the contractor hired to take the dead to the morgue.

Professional Funeral Services of Florida has a history of violations of its $156,500-a-year contract with the county, as well as violations of city, state and federal laws, records show.

Complaints filed against the firm include sending a pickup truck on July 9 to remove a man's body -- a violation of the county's contract, which requires that a hearse or van be used. Records also show the company has faced nearly $200,000 in state and federal tax liens and owes $10,000 to the state unemployment tax fund.

And on Aug. 12, a Professional Funeral worker was arrested on charges of stealing jewelry and cash from bodies. Police have widened their investigation into claims that other workers robbed the dead.

Chief Medical Examiner Ron Wright has recommended that the county keep doing business with the firm.

Wright said the company has done a good job of taking about 2,400 bodies a year to the morgue, and estimated that the county's cost of doing its own body removals would be $565,000 each year.

In an Aug. 27 report, requested by the county after the theft complaint, Wright wrote: "Given that I know of more theft by county employees working in the morgue than by Professional (Funeral) employees, it seems illogical to use theft as the driving force for this huge increase in cost."

Yet at least two other companies do body removals in Broward.

County Commissioners Nicki Grossman and Lori Parrish requested on Tuesday that the county conduct a more thorough review of Professional Funeral after recent disclosures about the firm in a Sun-Sentinel article.

"Can you imagine showing up in a pickup?" asked Parrish, referring to the complaint filed by a relatives after the July 9 problem. "It's despicable."

In a memo Parrish issued on Tuesday, she also asked the county to investigate a complaint that a Rolex watch and Gucci bracelet were missing from the body of Ida Melinda Pattillo, 31, who died in an auto accident on Aug. 25.

The Broward Sheriff's Office said that detectives did not find the jewelry on Pattillo's body.

Grossman said it may be time for the county to look for other firms to do the work, or to more closely monitor Professional Funeral.

"There are other companies doing this," Grossman said. "We don't have to deal with sleaze."

County Administrator B. Jack Osterholt said his office may suggest an audit of Professional Funeral's books.

Company owner Joseph Damiano and his attorney, Ted Crespi, did not return phone messages left at their offices on Tuesday.

Crespi said in an interview last week that all problems would be corrected.